Heraskevych faces potential disqualification
Athlete calls situation ‘theater of the absurd’
The Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych has been warned that he faces disqualification from the Winter Olympics if he wears a “helmet of memory” for his country’s war dead when the men’s competition starts on Thursday.
Heraskevych has continued to practise in the helmet, which shows 20 images of athletes and children killed since Russia’s invasion, despite the IOC banning it on Monday. In a post on X, published on Wednesday, Heraskevych indicated that he has no intention of backing down and called on the IOC to approve his helmet for the competition.
“The IOC has turned the situation with the ‘Memory Helmet’ into a theater of the absurd,” he wrote. “Earlier we asked, and now we demand the lifting of the ban on using the ‘Memory Helmet’ during competitions at the Olympic Games. It is obvious that it does not violate any IOC rules.”
